EVE General Discussion

Wouldn't those still be PLEX that were bought at one point? I get that it is PLEX that would have otherwise been forever lost, but it's still time that has been paid for.

So... the same thing he just said?

Your flow pointed the sarcastic remark in reply to the guy saying the same thing you did. Doesn't really seem like an effective flow. If it was meant to provide further supportive reasoning it didn't come over well, not as I read it.

But sure, explain away.

Casual players should pay the monthly subscription rate then. One would hope that their reason for causal play is that they have a successful life outside of this game and can give up a pizza or two worth of money per month to play.

GOONS BWA HA HAAAAA

You are bang on MM.

This...



and this...



in answer to this:




OMG! Sort your real life out first, then start playing little pew pew computer games... really!!!

I dunno what the trillionaires are up to, but Id expect that investing a substantial % of surplus income into buying up PLEX is very wise and safe, after all your other needs are covered, especially now that it is reasonable to expect PLEX will become more in demand as a way to derive AUR as CCP expands the shop.

This because in other commodities you are competing with other players on ingame terms. But on PLEX, you are leveraging against CCPs set IRL price for PLEX/AUR/Gametime which are fixed costs and which are extremely unlikely to depreciate. In other words, CCP ensures that your PLEX will ALWAYS retain its value. Its like having God backing your investment. And the more of them you buy up, the more you raise demand, further appreciating your stock. Though soone enough you may end up paying 10mil more per PLEX you purchase, thats fine, you can afford it, because the 50 PLEX you have in stock are also now worth 10mil more per piece.

Its a bubble though, as at some point it becomes a real problem for people with tons of accounts to generate the ISK they need to maintain their account time. Im not sure where the theoretical tipping point for that is. Id imagine most people are prepared to deactivate 1-3 accounts in order to focus on their main activities with the remainder. Their love of the game will prompt them to adapt by simply focusing on what they enjoy with less toons.

But when you get this super rich, there is another kind of ingame asset that retains its value, increases in value directly related to investment, is emminently useful ingame and is directly tied to PLEX. That asset is Characters. The higher you can push up PLEX cost, the more people consolidate into their main toons and sell their expendables, the cheaper you can buy those up, PLEX them from your stock to make use of them and to increase their value with another months worth of SP. Because there is no way to purchase SP from CCP, characters are "PLEX converters". Every PLEX you invest in one is directly converted into a permanent increase in value and usefulness. There is yet another inverse advantage. Because as PLEX value rises, more people will start looking to the Character Bazaar to instead of PLEXing their own characters month after month to get them where they want them to be, they will instead be tempted to just flat out buy a toon who can do that now, today, rather than in 3-4 months (which you will have to PLEX, and wait (oh god, the waiting) for).

Thats what I would be doing if I was super rich. Buying PLEX and converting that into a stock of advanced useful/sellable Characters. Hell, CCP even ensures the Character Bazaar, so once again, as in PLEX value, your assets are backed by the Gods themselves. These are the real capital in EVE, and the fundamental means of production, in owning them you become a true capitalist in the traditional sense of the term.

Heh, might be fun to setup an Amarr toon with a specific long term plan to build such a capital base, and roleplay him as a Slaver who cultivates and sells his own stock of high quality, tailored clones which are much more saleable than some random guys mixed character..But my ambitions exceed my means. First I need a 75% nullsec donut!

Perhaps a ridiculous question, but if all of you "leet" players and sov null gurus are "paying" for your subs through PvE generated ISK, is that not actually creating a non-sustainable revenue model for CCP?

The only people actually paying cash to play EVE then are those who pay subs (which is, reading this thread, apparently no one but me) and the very few that buy PLEX from time to time to inject the ISK necessary to subsidize their play style, whatever that may be. They are actually paying for you to play.

If I were in CCP's shoes, I might just remove PLEX from the game entirely and force everyone back to paying RL money for subscription/GTC's to play. Sure, some people will leave. But the revenue needed to keep in business might be more stable.

Or perhaps PLEX prices in game actually need to go through the roof, just to deter those who have been using in-game ISK to pay their way.

People who use in-game ISK to purchase in-game PLEX to pay for game time are paying *nothing.*

This leaves CCP reliant on people spending real-life money on PLEX to keep the revenue up. If CCP dump plex into the market, for any reason, that is not new revenue, it is revenue they already recognized. Which is a problem.

The relevant question (which I do not know the answer to) is whether the current model generates more or less RL revenue than making everyone pay subs. I suspect (but again, lack the data to prove) that making everyone pay for subs/GTC's would generate a more sustainable revenue stream. But I accept I may be wrong.